Cracks in the Ice
by OnceUponAFandom
Summary: Sometimes people who are apart from one another will forget that the other even existed. In the saddest of cases, one of the people will remember, but the other will forget. So what do you do when the one you care about the most can't even remember you?
1. Prologue: Eleven

Being a guardian is busy work. Every second of every day, there is always some place in the world that's supposed to be cold, or someplace where it's winter, or someplace that's just far overdue for a snow day. Jack Frost hardly has a moment to breathe. Whenever he does, though, he goes straight to Burgess. It's a small town in Pennsylvania with peeling paint and rusted trashcans, nothing spectacular. But to Jack this is the most important place in the world. This is the town he spent his life, and his afterlife, in. This is also the home of a boy. A boy named Jamie Bennett.

Jamie was ten years old when he first saw Jack. He was a unique child, with a strange affinity for the improbable and fantastic. Maybe this natural inclination is what laid the foundation for his belief in popular mythical creatures and people. Jamie saw the pale boy when nobody else in the world had, and he defended him with his belief. Now it's been one year since that first encounter. Jamie is a sixth grader at his local middle school, and he has two "C"s on his report card. His mom is not happy with this.

Jack could not fly to his home fast enough. For the first time in a long time he had finished his duties early and had a moment of free time. He chose to spend this moment the way he had before defeated Pitch Black and became a guardian: in his home town, playing with the local children. He touched down near the Bennett household and peeked through the window of the family room. This was the room where Jamie watched TV with his younger sister Sophie, put together puzzles, and normally was when he wasn't outside playing. When Jack looked through the window, there was Jamie. He sat at the desk in the corner, and had just closed a heavy looking book. Jack knocked on the window, excited to visit his first believer.

Jamie's head whipped around at the sharp sound and grinned at Jack. The tooth he lost from a freak sledding incident had grown back in a long time ago. He scuttled to the window and slid it open, letting in the cold air and the cold boy. "Jack!" He exclaimed gleefully, extending his arms for a hug.

"Hey, Jamie!" Jack responded, kneeling down to embrace his young friend. He noticed that he didn't have to stoop as much as he normally did to reach his first believer. "You've gotten so much taller, kid! When did that happen?"

"Have I?" Jamie asked, looking down at himself. "I actually didn't notice!"

"You're still a bit of a pipsqueak, though. Still shorter than that Pippa girl?"

Jamie groaned. "Don't remind me. Every time I gain a centimeter, she gets two! It's really not even funny."

Jack laughed. "So, hey, do you want to go grab the gang and have some fun outside?" He asked. He had missed Jamie and his friends since he had last visited.

Jamie's smile brightened. "Sure!" He said, grabbing his coat from the back of his chair. "Let's go get everyone!" He showed his mother his completed homework and ran out the door, zipping his coat as he went. Jack flew along beside him, easily keeping up with Jamie's steady pace.

The rest of the day was spent the same day that Jack's visits always were: filled with fun, laughter, and snowball fights. At the end of the day, Jamie returned home, exhausted and told his mom and sister about the wonderful day he had. Then he went to bed and Jack stayed with him, telling stories until he fell asleep. These were the times that Jack loved the most. He loved watching the golden sand slowly stream into the room and circle above Jamie's head until he finally dozed off. He left that night with a smile, and a heart full of joy.


	2. Chapter One: Twelve

Good friends are difficult to come by. Some people learn this the hard way. Jack Frost is one of those people. He lived his entire afterlife without any friends to speak of. That all changed when the guardians needed his help. Then he got used to being wanted, used to being needed, used to being loved. While he's on the job, he sometimes runs across his friends and fellow guardians as they go about their own duties. He can remember joking with the Sandman in the middle of the night in Djibouti, and paying the Tooth Fairy a surprise visit as he coated the mountains in a freak snow storm.

Another moment to relax. Another moment to spend in Burgess. Jack hadn't been to the town in almost a year. Jamie was in seventh grade now, the awkward grade between being new to the world of middle school and being ready to bolt out the doors, ready for high school. When Jack got to town, Jamie was still in class. Jack circled the school, looking into each window until he found his young friend.

Jamie looked weary. He was stooped over his desk, writing franticly in his notebook. He only looked up three times, twice to look at the clock and once to look at his notes. Jack could see a small action figure sticking out of his backpack.

After a while, the bell rang to signal the end of the school day. Jack was ready to fly to the front of the school to meet Jamie, but he stopped himself. Jamie wasn't moving from his seat. He was slowly putting his things in his backpack, taking his sweet time. Jack sighed quietly before zipping around the front of the school and through the front door, bringing a gust of cold air with him. He scoured the halls until he found the only classroom that still held a student. He had slung his backpack over his shoulders and was headed to the door, but when he saw Jack he stopped short. Any sign that he had been tired vanished as he smiled at his personal guardian.

"What's up, Jamie?" He greeted, falling into step with his young friend as he walked out the doorway and through the halls.

"Nothing much. School and stuff, you know?" He muttered.

"Why are you so quiet?" the winter spirit asked, hardly able to hear Jamie over the clamor of the other prepubescent children.

"Well to the others it would look like I'm talking to myself, and I don't want them to…" he started.

"Want them to what?" Jack asked after a moment of silence between the two.

Jamie gave Jack a wide smile. "It's nothing! I just lost my train of thought."

"Oh. Okay then. Hey, how about you get you friends together for a snowball fight or something?" Jack proposed. He needed something to put his mind off of the recent global warming crisis.

"Sure! I'll get everyone together once I finish my homework!" Jamie said. As they walked home together, Jamie told Jack about his new grade, new teachers, and new friends. "I swear Mrs. Peterson must be a harpy or something! She's got the eyes of a hawk! It's just not normal. And don't even get me started on Coach Turnstein. He keeps on telling me that if I worked out more I wouldn't be so short! I mean seriously! Exercise adds muscles, buddy, not meters!"

Jack was amused by his account of his life. "So tell me about the guys. How is everyone?"

"Well Caleb is going to try out for the seventh grade basketball team in the spring, and Claude is starting to read a lot about plants. Monty got contacts and braces. Cupcake is taking a Tae Kwan Do class at Pippa's dad's studio. And Pippa's been carrying this bug black book everywhere. She won't show me what's in it."

"Does it have the title on the cover?" Jack inquired.

"No. It's just a big black book with spirals along the top, like a notebook."

"Oh!" Jack, exclaimed, "It's a sketchbook, Jamie. She's getting into art!"

"Is she? That's so cool! But why won't she show any of us her drawings?"

"Well maybe she's embarrassed by them. She probably doesn't think that she's very good." Jack offered, hopping onto a wooden fence and balancing on the top.

"But she shows the book to Bradley Henson!"

"Bradley Henson?"

"He's this kid in our history class. He's a huge jerk, but Pippa's always laughing at his jokes and hanging around him! And she shows him her book!"

"She's probably just got a crush on him." Jack shrugged. "Give her some time and she'll come to her senses."

"A crush? No way! Pippa wouldn't like a jerk like that!" Jamie retorted.

"Well what does he look like?" Jack asked.

"He's really tall, and pretty muscley."  
"Muscley?"

"Shut up, it's a word. So anyway, he's pretty muscley and he's got green eyes and his hair is kinda long and it curls at the ends and-"

"Oooooh he sounds soooooo dreamy!" Jack cooed, pretending to faint. Jamie burst out laughing at the sudden change in the atmosphere. "Oh Bradley Henson, marry me!" Jack continued in a falsetto voice. They both had to stop walking so they could laugh until their sides hurt. The people passing by stared at Jamie curiously. They all knew that he was an odd duck, but this was on an entirely different level.

Jamie started his homework as soon as he got home. Math, then science, then newspaper. He finished in forty-five minutes. He asked his mom if he could play outside and she told him to bring Sophie along. Jamie ran to each of his friends' houses and Jack cruised along beside him. Jamie was getting faster, but he was still just a mortal kid. Each of the children greeted Jack with a tight hug and they all went to the park. A snowball fight ensued, as they always did when Jack visited. This went on for a while until Claude spoke up.

"Did you guys feel that?" He asked, looking around.

"Feel what?" His brother asked.

"A raindrop! I swear I just felt one on my nose!"

"Whoa, me too!" Monty exclaimed. Soon everyone else could feel the rain and it started to sprinkle. "My mom wouldn't want me to play out in the rain!" Monty squeaked, covering his head with his hands.

"Come on, my house is closest!" Pippa called, already on the move. Everyone else raced after her. They reached her home right before the rain really started coming down, pouring buckets over the snowy landscape. The kids, wrapped in blankets, sighed.

"Well there goes our fun." Caleb grumbled, tightening a towel around his shoulders. Pippa's mother had put towels in the dryer as soon as she noticed the start of the rain, and handed them to the children, warm and fluffy, when they arrived. She had called their parents to tell them that she would drive them home when the rain stopped, because the children insisted on staying together during the storm.

"So what do we do now?" Jamie asked from his seat in a beanbag chair. The seven friends and the guardian had gathered in Pippa's room.

"What? You guys have never been stuck indoors before?" Jack asked.

"Well yeah, but Pippa doesn't have any video games!" Monty said.

"Excuse me," Pippa snorted, "But they just don't interest me."  
"Okay, so mindless CGI violence is out of the question." Jack interrupted. "But how about I tell you all a story?" The kids all nodded excitedly. Having lived through quite a bit of history, Jack had some stories to tell.

He had just finished the second one when Pippa's mom came into the room, ready to drive them home. The group walked next door to say goodbye to Monty, then piled into Pippa'smom's car to go home. Jack followed the car quietly.

Once Jamie was dropped off, Jack ran up to him. "Hey, I've got to go now. Duty calls, you know?"

"Yeah I understand," Jamie responded, smiling sadly. Jack was about to take off, but Jamie grabbed hold of his sleeve. "You're coming to my birthday, though, right?" He asked.

"Birthday?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, next month is my birthday. The seventeenth. You can make it, right?" His eyes widened.

"Well duh I can make it!" Jack snorted. "I wouldn't miss my big guy turning thirteen for all the free time in the world!" Jamie smiled at his response and let go of his frosty sleeve. Jack took off, his mind already preoccupied with what to get Jamie for his birthday.


End file.
